Crippling debt is the biggest issue facing Australia

TEN years ago the Australian government had a surplus of $ 18 billion. Today they have a debt of $ 575 billion. With a population of 24.66 million people, that equates to a debt of $ 23,317 for every man woman and child in Australia. It gets worse!

The Queensland State government has a debt of $ 75 billion and a population of 4.7 million. That is an added debt of $ 15,957 per person.

A little closer to home and we have the Townsville City Council with a debt of $ 373.2 million and a population of nearly 200,000. An extra debt of $ 1866 per person.

The debt of every man, woman and child in Townsville is $ 41,140. Therefore a family of four owes $ 164,560 and will pay about $ 8200 a year in interest without reducing the debt.

This is the biggest issue, by far, facing Australia. So what is being done about it? When the LNP put any sensible legislation forward they are blocked in the Senate by the ALP and the greenies. This just adds to the debt problem that was initially caused by the Labor Party. The LNP are so desperate that they are now robbing banks. Bill Shorten and his faceless cronies want to tax any type of success.

What is the Queensland Government doing about their debt? In the last budget they took several hundred million dollars off their debt and dumped it on Ergon Energy. Now Ergon Energy has to cripple pensioners and businesses with their electricity price increases.

The Townsville City Council seems to be trying to reduce debt and increase efficiency but they have an uphill battle with all their red tape. The idea of spending a huge $ 10 million to educate us about water usage is unbelievable. The council are the ones that need educating on common sense.

With a total annual interest bill of over $ 3 billion the debt issue should be on every politician’s agenda. PHIL EDWARDS,

Currajong.